Why Can't People Talk in Complete Sentences Anymore?

That's a steaming pile of McTagshit. You left Bella Dea hanging high and dry. The more difficult the language issues become, which isn't at all hard to happen to you, the more obscure your answers or you simply flat out disappear.

You seem to try these days to muscle in on other people's conversations. Is that because no-one will talk to you because you write

Most probably.

As far as my remark to Bella, you will see that I have identified myself as being in a minority of one, even among my more intelligent friends.
Doesn't mean I'm wrong, though.

U can decide for yourself
whether anyone is complicit
in perpetuating his perpetration.

I myself do take issue with some of his more egregious or offensive remarks. My bad, as the Americans say.

I am a teacher and I was a visitor in a second grade class last week learning about the 'common core' curriculum and how it's implemented. The teacher assigned a subject for which each child had to write a three to five sentence paragraph in response. Each child then brought their journal up, read it aloud to the teacher and I (which actually was necessary because some of their spelling was indecipherable) and then the teacher circled and corrected the incorrectly spelled words and sent them back to their desks.
I figured at this point she'd have them rewrite the paragraph with correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. But no - there wasn't time - we were on to the math lesson.
I know I was taught that to read silently, say aloud and then write information or correctly spelled words was a good way to reinforce and integrate learning. In my mind, she was skipping the most important and reinforcing step.

I have to say, I couldn't teach this way - not laying down a firm foundation and speeding through the various steps and layers of learning without making sure the basics were thoroughly covered and mastered. It made me sad for the little ones who were sitting there obviously confused and overwhelmed, having never even learned yet what a complete sentence was and being told to write thee or five of them.

My brother was learning disabled- I wasn't. All I could think while I was observing this class was that it was as if George and I were sat down next to each other, given the same learning task and the same amount of time and instruction in which to do it. That's what they do these days. For the smart kids, great - they would have learned it on their own anyway. For the slower learners - oh well...there's no time in the day or space in the curriculum to cater to them.

But I will tell you - I do understand now why I see high school students who can't read the biology text books. I left that day feeling sorry for these kids - ALL of them - smart and not so smart because it just seems like everything is rushed through and covered quickly and in a slap-dash fashion.

And I DO know I should have written that the students read their sentences to the teacher and 'me'. See what I mean? Everyone needs time to reread and go over their work and the opportunity to correct it.

You chose X and I because it was a perfectly natural thing to do,Aidan. When ENLs do perfectly natural things you know that they are part of the grammar of English.

Another steaming pile of McTagshit. You left Bella Dea hanging high and dry. The more difficult the language issues become, which isn't at all hard to happen to you, the more obscure your answers or you simply flat out disappear.

Hi, Rebecca. Did u acquire an English accent yet ?





David

Ok, well my bitching thread turned into an English debate.

That's fine. I know I am by no means perfect at English and I am sure I could stand to learn to some things. There are so many rules that are no longer followed or rules that we are simply never taught. I just can't stand the butchery of the language now. You don't have to be a grammar nazi to appreciate and enjoy language. I love words. I always have and rarely will you find me shying away from a word.

However, there are basic rules that I just feel like you should follow. I suppose these are all my personal preference. I, like everyone else, cherry pick the rules I follow daily and those I only follow when writing or speaking formally. I also think text speak is very childish looking. I think, for the most part, adults should write like adults.

I believe that you play the game they way you practice the game. Look how spellcheck has ruined the ability to spell. How many people still say things like "I seen it."? I can't stand that phrase. I am particularly hard on my daughter and correct her all the time when she uses a word incorrectly or mispronounces a word (in a way that is truly unacceptable rather than a regional issue).

I am much more forgiving in text with commas and such. I can accept the occasional "ain't" simply because ain't seems appropriate in some circumstances.

What I'm saying is that it's annoying that non native English speakers speak and write English far better than the majority of native English speakers and that's a shame.

Its hard to figure out their accents, tho.

Last nite, Ringo Star 's accent was GONE
when he started singing. He sounded like
he was from the American South, or South America.





David

That's maybe because he's lived over there for so lomg.

My mum was from New Zealand, and moved to England when she was 12.
To me, she sounded completely English, unless she was speaking with a fellow New Zealander, then she would revert.

Put Ringo in a room with a few scousers and he would no doubt do the same.

I wonder what a scouser is.

Ringo would know. (So would google)

Bella: That's fine. I know I am by no means perfect at English and I am sure I could stand to learn to some things.

-----

You sure could, Bella.

Bella: There are so many rules that are no longer followed or rules that we are simply never taught. I just can't stand the butchery of the language now.

--------------

That's one of the things you could learn. Most of those rules that you think are rules aren't. You should learn just how truly complicated language is and how it is debased by people advocating that it is falling to pieces. That is an old often repeated canard that has been around for centuries.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

But while it is understandable that speakers of a language with a literary tradition would tend to be pessimistic about its course, there is no more hard evidence for a general linguistic degeneration than there is reason to believe that Aaron and Rose are inferior to Ruth and Gehrig.

It is absurd even to talk about a language changing for the better or the worse
Most of my fellow linguists, in fact, would say that it is absurd even to talk about a language changing for the better or the worse. When you have the historical picture before you, and can see how Indo-European gradually slipped into Germanic, Germanic into Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon into the English of Chaucer, then Shakespeare, and then Henry James, the process of linguistic change seems as ineluctable and impersonal as continental drift. From this Olympian point of view, not even the Norman invasion had much of an effect on the structure of the language, and all the tirades of all the grammarians since the Renaissance sound like the prattlings of landscape gardeners who hope by frantic efforts to keep Alaska from bumping into Asia.

http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/

I hope thay don t bite.

Hi David - maybe a little bit. I do hear that I pronounce short a's (as in words like bath and half) differently than I used to, and when someone asks me my birthday I say the 23rd of March now instead of March 23.

I believe it has a lot to do with understanding.

She says I think I'm starting to see.

Well, we say: "the 4th of July!"





David